Tag Archives : travel

There is a mountain on an island near Hiroshima reachable via tram or a hike that provides a wonderful view of the entire coast line. We decided to take the gondola up and hike down to maximize our time. I can’t even count the number of times we saw Japanese…

The city of Nara is at least a day trip from Osaka. It is known for at least two things: a 40′ bronze Buddha statue (大仏) and a couple thousand Japanese deer that freely wander. The deer are fed specially made deer crackers sold by all the street vendors and…

We had the opportunity to stay overnight at a Buddhist temple on Mount Koya. The tradition of having guests stay at the temple started with emperors and nobles back around 1000. So, our accommodations and meals were much more stately than what the monks would have and eat. But, they…

Many public works projects in this country turn out really nice. I have to wonder where they get the money for all of them. For example, every sidewalk in the big cities has a strip of specially textured tiles to aid the sight impaired. It makes it easy to tell…

Osaka is a much more “average” city then Tokyo or Kyoto. The buildings are mostly concrete without the culture of Kyoto or the wow factor of Tokyo. But at night it comes alive. Many of the side streets around our place are straight out of anime or Blade Runner with…

A failed attempt to eat at a famous ramen joint for lunch – apparently restaurants here may be closed on tuesdays – did put us close to a local sake brewery. I’d like to say they are as plentiful here as micro breweries are in the US but they may…

There were some awesome suits of traditional Japanese armor and blades for sale in a shop in the Northern Higashiyama area of Kyoto. The only swords I could afford were display only (not sharpenable). But they do carry really nice hakama which I needed for jujitsu. The proprietor was really…

The golden pavilion (鹿苑寺 – rokuonji) in Kyoto is a gorgeous temple and grounds and very well maintained. Like all the national landmarks hordes of workers are constantly tending the land: picking up leaves one by one and replacing stones scuffed off walkways. We debate on how many of these…